The present invention relates to a driving mechanism of a windshield wiper for an automotive vehicle, comprising a motor-driven wheel, in particular, a toothed gear, to which is eccentrically hinged one end of a toggle lever-type crank drive while the other end thereof is connected to the wiper shaft in a non-rotating way.
A wide variety of designs of windshield wiper systems for automotive vehicles provided with a driving mechanism of this type are well known in the art. Typical wiper systems include a wheel that is a toothed gear or, more precisely, a worm gear actuated by a worm which, in turn, is rotated by the electromotor. The rotating movement of this wheel or toothed gear is transformed with the aid of the toggle lever-type crank drive into a reciprocating or oscillating movement of the wiper shaft, with the two parts of the toggle lever-type crank drive being, in turn, also capable to be coupled to one another via toothed segments. It can be readily seen that in response to the eccentric hinge of the crank drive, with otherwise identical dimensions of the drive in general.sub.s varying wiping angles and also varying parking positions of the wiper shaft and, hence, of the wiper blade(s) vis-a-vis the windshield of the automotive vehicle are attainable. However, automotive manufacturers, in view of different configurations of the windshield to be wiped, desire different wiping angles and, in the event of windshield wipers having predetermined parking positions different parking positions. The toothed wheel, hitherto, has been specifically designed under consideration of the individual customer's requirement. This latter requirement in the first place refers to hinging the toggle lever-type crank drive on the toothed gear side, and in particular, it refers to the radial distance of the geometric axis of the toothed gear.
The fact that windshield wipers of this type, as a rule, are not produced by the automotive manufacturer but rather by an accessories manufacturer requires a special construction to be designed and manufactured for each windshield wiper, at least as far as the toothed gear is concerned. Conversely, windshield wiper system drives, virtually, are series-fabricated products in which even minor savings, below the line, may result in substantial cost reductions.
Accordingly, the problem addressed by this invention resides in so improving a driving mechanism of a windshield wiper for an automotive vehicle in order to permit more universal use with drives having at least varying wiping angles, but preferably also a predetermined parking position to be observed.